Answers still sought in impending cable merger

The impending merger of cable giants Time Warner Cable and Comcast has left a lot of unanswered questions for local consumers.

The impending merger of cable giants Time Warner Cable and Comcast has left a lot of unanswered questions for local consumers.

Comcast announced the $45 billion purchase of the area’s sole cable television provider Feb. 13, but the deal still has to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission and either the U.S. Department of Justice or the Federal Trade Commission.

Sena Fitzmaurice, Comcast’s vice president of government communications, said the corporation hopes to have the deal approved by the end of March, and completely finalized by year’s end.

If all goes according to plan, she said the transition could be completed by early 2015.

Fitzmaurice said it’s too early to tell how the merger will affect rates or channel line-ups because Comcast still has to eliminate 3 million subscribers of the 11 million it gained from Time Warner. They must do this in order to adhere to anti-trust regulations.

“We don’t know where they will come from geographically at this point … but we will have to sell them off to someone,” Fitzmaurice said.

Those customers who are picked up by Comcast would be looking at fairly comparable cable television package pricing compared to the rates listed currently on Comcast and Time Warner’s web sites.

Fitzmaurice said she doesn’t know if any promotions that Time Warner subscribers may still be under during the switch will be honored, or if new equipment or infrastructure will be needed to deliver Comcast services.

One thing that won’t be an issue right away will be the speeding up or slowing down of any web sites, as Fitzmaurice said Comcast agreed to abide by the FCC’s open Internet rules until 2018 when it purchased NBC Universal a few years ago.

She said that Comcast has worked hard in recent years to improve its Internet services, on demand offerings and customer service.

“We’ve really been investing in our network, and we look forward to bringing all of our innovations to Time Warner subscribers,” Fitzmaurice said.

Follow @OD_Vanno on Twitter or call him at 792-5074.

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